A Comparative Study on Effective Factors in Patient Safety Culture from the Nursing Staff Points of View

Introduction: Patient safety and its requirements fulfillment are today one of the useful valuation indicators in healthcare organizations. Thus, patient safety culture and its promotion are referred to as one of the most important issues raised in the country. The present study aims to examine the effective factors (personal and organizational) in patient safety culture from the point of view of nursing staff in Bahman and Parsian private hospitals. Method: The study has an analytical cross-sectional design and is an applied research. HSOPSC (with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.82) and researcher-devised questionnaires (with Cronbach’s Alpha equal to 0.912) were the only data collection tools. Statistical population includes nursing staff of Bahman and Parsian private hospitals in north-west Tehran. A sample consisting of 150 nurse shift supervisors and head nurses was selected from the population. Necessary data for completing questionnaires were collected by interview. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 software. Given the levels of measurement for the variables, valid measures of central tendency (mean, standard deviation), correlation tests, Chi-square, t- test, and ANOVA were used. Results: The findings showed us that such factors as organizational commitment, error reporting system, management support, reward system, and employee empowerment equipment distribution have important roles in patient safety. Their P-values are reported < 0.001 for all of them. Patient safety was not significantly associated with age (P=0.964), educational level (P=0.154), and work experience (P=0.888) There is no low awareness about safety culture in any hospital and their mean awareness about patient safety culture was equal to 3.13 ±0.478 and 3.68 ±0.587 in Parsian and Bahman hospitals, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Error reporting system and organizational commitment respectively have the most and the least effect on promoting patient safety culture. Empowerment heightens the awareness of employees, enhances their performance and productivity, reduces errors caused by lack of awareness, and improves patient safety. Reward system and organizational commitment had the least effect.